Do you want to be cremated or buried?

I am leaning towards cremation because I don't even like visiting cemeteries (not because I fear death, I just have no interest in seeing a loved one's grave). Plus, what laws will be changed in a few hundred years when we are running out of room on this earth. Will I be dug up and thrown into a pile? I really need to get my act together and get going on my will.

Cremation. Less space, less fuss. Open caskets creep me out and I don't want to have my remains on display. So the funeral service could have a rented, temporary casket but not one that goes underground and definitely not an open casket.

Don't me to rude here, but once I cash it in, it's no longer my problem. I really don't care if I'm cremated, buried, have a medical school cut my guts open to train future surgeons, or dump my lifeless carcass on a steaming landfill to let the buzzards pick at it. I'm dead. Find the cheapest way to get ride of the lifeless protoplasm. If anyone wants to remember me, buy a keg of beer, and sit around and tell lies about what a nice guy I was.

My will instructions are to donate my body to a medical school. If what's left has to be disposed of later, they're to do so in the cheapest way that's legal.

Cemeteries are so not-green, wasting space that could be used for crops or forest. If people need to bury bodies, it would be greenest to use toxic waste land or something else already useless for the ecosystem.

Ruth, be careful of the terms and conditions of donating your body to medical science. Many medical schools will accept the body, and after their done with their experiments, teaching, etc., they'll give the remains back to the family and tell them to pay for the burial, cremation, etc. They've taken the benefit of what they want, then stick the family with the bill for the ultimate disposal. Check it out, before you cash it in.

Just a nice little heap of ashes sitting in the silk lined casket. What an image.

I don't think I'd want my ashes on display in an urn...but I know someone who has their deceased pets ashes in an urn in their living room.... I still don't know exactly how I feel about that. Personally, I'd rather have my ashes scattered or encased in something. And, as for my 2 pets, I don't think I'll be cremating them or putting them in one of those 'pet cemeteries'....but I might feel differently when the sad day comes!

My parents still visit their parents' grave sites and 'keep them tidy'.... it is a kind of obligation that they feel, I suppose. I don't think I really need a gravesite...maybe just a little plaque or brick would be nice.

My late husband has his gravesite (cremation/encased in a wall...like a library sort of) in his hometown and I haven't visited the site since his funeral day 4 years ago....too morbid. I did have a memorial brick made for him at our local Rotary Garden, however, in the town I'm living now. It provides a place for our kids to visit. And a non-religious atmosphere was important to me.

"California is the only U.S. State that does not permit full body burials. The Environmental Protection Agency regulations for full body burials at sea in the United States require that the site of interment be three (3) nautical miles... from land and at a depth of at least 600 feet.... In the northeastern United States this may require travel in excess of 30 miles (48 km) for a suitable site."

This could mean you'll be spending eternity with a hirsute, saudi-looking man with half a face, but only if you opt for burial in the Arabian sea.

I would think whole bodies are just un-cremated ones. They don't want them to wash back onshore, or be an accidental catch for a fishing expedition. Although, if someone had an amputation, they would likely be considered a "whole body" under these regulations.

One person's ashes don't amount to much - I would imagine they could be spread almost anywhere outside of throwing them over a highway overpass or something similarly messy or dangerous.

According to slate.com one person's ashes weigh about 5 pounds. That's like a 5 pound sack of flour. I got a lot more than that out of my fireplace last time I cleaned it. If you spread it over an average lawn, which I did with the fireplace ashes, I suspect it wouldn't be noticable after a good sprinkling or soaking rain. It's hard to imagine that throwing ashes into the ocean would be an issue.